NOVEMBER 30, 2004

Dallara-Ferrari and the Mexicans

There is plenty of gossip about the Midland F1 programme at the moment, some of it good and some of it bad.

There is plenty of gossip about the Midland F1 programme at the moment, some of it good and some of it bad. The reality of the situation is that while there continue to be doubts about whether or not a company the size of Midland can afford an F1 programme, there are people working away to put together a deal. The funding will probably come from sponsors if they can be found because Midland does seem to be rather too small a company to be shouldering the entire cost of an F1 programme. The initial money has been used to commission Dallara to build four prototype chassis. These will be designed, according to the latest rumours, by Gary Anderson, who has been working with Irish television in recent months having tired of the life of a full-time F1 engineer. The latest word on engines is that Midland will be paying Ferrari to supply it with customer engines and that this deal will replace the existing relationship between Ferrari and Sauber. The team will be based in England and will be overseen by Colin Kolles, the owner of a Formula 3 team in the Euroseries, and he will be supported by Christian Geistdorfer, the former WRC co-driver who has been involved in F1 commercial deals in recent years. The actual running of the team will be done by Trevor Carlin, of Carlin Motorsport.

The latest suggestion is that one of the drivers is likely to be promising Mexican Mario Dominguez who was CART rookie of the year in 2002 and has been a regular frontrunner since then in CART and Champ Cars, winning two races: one on the streets of Miami and the other, a more fortunate win, in a rain-disrupted race in Surfers Paradise on 2002. Prior to that he was fourth in the Indy Lights series in 2001 (behind Townsend Bell and Dan Wheldon) after three years in the series. The 29-year-old started racing in 1992 after a career in karting.

Dominguez is under contract with Champ Car team Herdez Competition until the end of next year.